A delegation of senior officials from France’s foreign intelligence service DGSE visited Minsk in mid-July 2026. This was reported by the French specialized publication Intelligence Online.
“Although the intelligence services of France and Belarus regularly hold consultations, this face-to-face meeting was organized specifically for talks with the uncompromising head of the Belarusian intelligence service, Ivan Tertel”, the article’s authors write.
In an article titled “DGSE and MI6 Flock to Minsk in Bid to Keep Moscow at Bay,” Intelligence Online authors once again praise the work of Belarusian KGB and draw attention to what they claim is the KGB’s opposition to destabilizing operations originating from the Kremlin. The text also contains direct factual errors: Viktar Lukashenka, for example, is referred to as a national security adviser (he was dismissed from this post as early as the beginning of 2021), while the authors claim that the Belarus-Ukraine border is 111 km long (in fact, it is 1,084.2 km).
It is worth recalling that at the end of May 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron called Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The conversation was initiated by the French side, and the two discussed “regional issues and Belarus’ relations with the EU and France in particular.”
A few days later, Lukashenka revealed some details of his telephone conversation with the French president and announced a meeting in Minsk with Macron’s trusted representative. The meeting was expected to take place in early June.
Then the Pozirk publication, citing sources in diplomatic circles, reported that Nicolas Lerner, Director General of France’s Directorate-General for External Security, had arrived in Minsk in early June.
According to Dzianis Kuchynski, an adviser to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, it was not Macron’s representative who came to Minsk, but a retired official “who had previously held a number of positions, including ambassadorial posts.”
It is worth noting that, according to the Nasha Niva publication, in April 2026 a former French army officer named Boris was arrested in Belarus. His family appealed to the Élysée Palace, France’s foreign and interior ministries, senators, MPs, diplomatic missions and non-governmental organizations.
